Returning something old
by vamp1188
Summary: i am just writing, not editing. i get reallybusy sometimes but i love writing, so that is why i don't edit. hope you enjoy. BLURB: Its been three years since elena had been put into her sleeping curse and everything has been mostly calm, well, until everything that Damon, Stefan, Bonnie, Caroline and the others have been told is questioned. Is Elena really in her sleeping curse?
1. Chapter 1

He stood beneath the tall pine trees. The woods were abundant with them and with clearings that spread between the trees and bushes and old rubbled ruins that belonged to the founding families. If you tried to look past the woods you'd have a clear sight of view through the tall pine trees, almost like they weren't there. But they were everywhere with their pine leaves scattered amongst the ground and acorns accompanying them in lesser numbers beside the dry leaves of the large oaks.

There were many trees in the old woods, most tracing back hundreds of years, but trees wasn't all there was. Living things with a fresh flow of blood scoured these woods too.

As the boy stood still in the old woods, he could almost sense the flowing blood. But it was hard to determine where this blood was coming from. he knew it flowed through these woods, but where, he didn't know. He'd have to use the last bit of his power to determine where. He stood very still. His eyes closed. The place between his brooding eyebrows impregnated fine lines as he inhaled the scents brought in by the blowing winds. The winds were coming in strong, bringing in the leaves as it came and making the place cooler than it had already been due to the absent sun.

It wasn't really windy though, not in the woods, but the winds did come in strong intervals, and he, the boy in the woods, took as much of this help as he could get. as the winds came he inhaled its scents; the smell of subtle decay from fall, the smell of the chilly earth and the smell of smoke from chimney's and the dry crisp leaves were all brought by the wind. But this is not what he was looking for; he was smelling for the weak but needed blood. He was smelling for the bitter iron taste he was used to. He was smelling for the energy he needed.

But nothing came, and as he waited he began to grow frustrated. Not because he couldn't find the fresh blood, but because he realized how powerless he was and how fast his hunger lust was growing. He was vulnerable to his instincts, especially since it had been almost a week since his last feed.

After a few minutes he heard something. In microseconds his eyes shot open, the grey skies reverberating off of his green, predator like eyes. he shifted his head towards the noise of a heaviness against dry leaves, leaning his head closer to the direction he heard this from. there it was again, and the second time it came he didn't bother to check for it again, he was already headed towards the sound. He was fast against the dead earth and it felt good to him as his invisible movements crossed the wind, but after seconds of this inhuman speed he began to feel weak. He was always fast with a consistent flow of blood in him but when he got into these weak points, he felt sick. And the only thing that kept him headed to the moveable feast was the carnivorous hunger that was clamouring inside of him.

The sounds of the creature came louder and louder until he was in a small clearing of the old woods- he was very close to the highway, which meant closer to civilization. He peered through the trees until his sense of hearing became the sense of sight. he could now clearly see what had been been disturbing the the earth; a deer was prompt by one of the pine trees, its long neck leaning down towards the dying grass as it took bites from it.

The boy watched the deer for a second; he felt bad for it. He had always felt bad right before a feed and it hurt him, but he knew this was much more humane than feeding off of human prey, and in the end it was always this knowledge that gave him the wickedness to do what had to be done.

In seconds he was- inhumanly- racing past trees towards the deer, and before the deer had any chance of evading, the boy was latched onto the deers neck.

The deers innocent eyes fell closed as its entire life- past and present- was being taken. The boy could feel this happening. He could see the life of the deer in his thoughts. He could feel the deer, almost like the deer had inhabited his boy and was, just now, thinking about all the things that could be.

The boy always found it odd how every dying thing would think like this. he always thought that the thought of "what could have been" would haunt the creature more than the thought of the future and of what could be. the past was always a cruel memory and regrets are always haunting and the boy knew that well. he had spend years making mistakes for his minds demons and he knew the pain that came with the regrets that he longed to forget, and thats why he found this odd. And with all of this, his eyebrows came up in the middle, creating the fine lines between his eyebrows and his forehead, which came with the feeling of a melancholic empathy.

He dug his long white teeth deeper into the animal. he could feel- and hear- the blood flowing out of the animals jugular vein and into himself, feeding all the parts of his hunger that were left unattended for to long. longer than any vampire should allow themselves to go, and he knew it.

once he had drained the life out of the deer, dropping the limp body to its side, he looked out past the trees into the sky and smiled. he felt bad for taking the deers life, but it had been so long and all he could feel was good and happy. plus he felt all re-energized like set of batteries. he was bursting in places he had forgotten about. it felt to him like an electric current buzzing from one spot to the next and it didn't stop, it continued on. he finally felt his power returning and he smiled on.

A familiar voice behind him, maybe in front of him, or beside him, on one of his sides, far away, cut off his smile.

"Stefan," the familiar voice said.

it was a sweet voice, very soothing and nostalgic. it had the sound of soft, golden rays of sunshine in the fall and the faintness of the wind in the summer. He could hear it clear, especially with his strength back, but it was so faint and it had a void to it that it never had before.

The boy, stefan, listened, his hearing focused on the woods, like it was the woods that were speaking to him.

He heard his name again. this time it stayed, fading into the depth of the woods.

It couldn't be her, he thought. Stefan knew it couldn't be her. It couldn't be _Elena_ , because elena is in the sleeping curse. But he knew her voice so well and he knew _this_ was _her_ voice.

"Stefan,"


	2. Chapter 2

"Stefan," the voice of Maybe-Elena echoed. it was the voice of elena. a voice long gone. the voice of humanity.

Stefan peered at the woods, eyebrows brooding with all the confusion. He had no idea what to think. was this really her? or was this some sick joke someone was playing on him. Someone like Damon, with all his boredom and free time he's had on his hands since he had made his way back into humanity. and Stefan knew Damon would joke about something as stupid as this, even as he was waiting- just as stefan was -for Elena to wake up.

"Damon," Stefan shouted into the woods.

There was no answer, only the sound of his name echoing inside his head. it was bouncing back and fourth and he could feel the pressure rising against his thoughts, against all of the feelings he was feeling.

He waited by the lifeless deer in silence. the only sound coming from the whistful wind and the occasional crack against the hard ground and his perpetual allusions of the faint voices. but these were not the voices he had heard earlier. these were just rattlings cranking against his brain. they felt real to him though. but he knew this couldnt actually be real. how could it? he would of heard about it already; Elena being awake; Bonnie being dead.

"Help me, Stefan" it said, and this time, with all of the Elena's rambling in his head, it wasn't in his head, it was real. as real as he.

he looked up into the woods, this time the opposite direction from where he had heard it before. there was a indistinguishable detail in the voice he couldn't quite figure out. all it hypothetically said was all past. it sounded oddly familiar, aside from it belonging to elena's voice. he couldn't quite figure it out, but with this familiarity he heard in the voice, came a pang of pain and sadness. stefan didn't know why, but he knew he had felt it before. it was a sadness that you couldn't really unveil, like you were sad but you didn't know why, all you knew was that it hurt, and it hurt just as before. all over again.

"Elena, where are you."

Stefan waited for another response. but it didn't come.

"ELENA!" he shouted, but still nothing. he sped past the trees to where he thought he had heard her last and as he worked his way to the last remnant of her voice he began to realize that he was beginning to head closer to the boarding house. it must be Damon, he thought, just before hearing the inviting words.

the voice wasn't as soothing this time, it was harsh but smooth as it said, "I love you, Stefan."

She needs my help is all that went through his head. he could not think about anything else. he didn't think about how Elena, Damons true love, had just stated that she loved him. no, all he wanted to do was find her. He raced through the woods to the place where he had thought he heard her voice, but it would change every few moments. one moment the voice sounded faint, coming from Mystic falls, the next it sounded like it was coming from the highway. Stefan was manic.

The boarding house. Stefan stopped moving. thats where the voice was coming from, the boarding house. and as Stefan came to this conclusion, he knew that Damon was definitly behind this unpleasant joke. "I love you". why i love you, he thought. but it didn't matter, it wasn't funny and he was angry.

Stefan used his newly restored strength and rushed to the boarding house, the veins pumping around his now darkened eyes.

The boarding house, big and broad, still looked the same from the outside as it had for all its years standing. Even- though surprising- after all of the things it had gone through; the takeover by the travelers, the parties thrown, the spells done, and the damage damon and Enzo ensued from their bender on the dark side. But that was all over now, the vault was sealed, they were back and the boarding house was still standing- more then not- on its foundation of memories and time. and its standing was the one thing that still kept Stefan and Damon in mystic fall. Maybe it even kept the rest of them here, too.

"Damon. Damon, where are you?" stefan shouted, entering the home, still frustrated.

"over here, little bro." Damon said.

Stefan walked into the bohemian living room-his footsteps booming echoes- with the large fireplace that has engulfed many smashed glasses of bourbon and other alcohols. He looked about the entire room before spotting Damon sitting on the antique couch, his mind focused on the board in front of him. Damon had a glass quarter full in front of him and a bottle of amber liquid. Stefan knew Damon had been drinking all day because the bottle was almost completely empty; this gave Damon more motive for this stupid act; being drunk and bored, and these were never good combinations for Damon.

"do you think everything is funny? is everything a joke to you?" Stefan asked annoyingly.

Damon kept his focus on the board in front of him, and it looked as he was thinking about something. "how can you beat yourself in chess if you can anticipate every single move you are about to make? its quite stupid." he said. He moved a chess piece from one end of the board all the way over to the king and queen and knocked them both down. "check mate." he smirked, pushing the board to the side.

He looked over at stefan now, totally unaware of anything that was said to him. He kicked his feet onto the couch, crossing his feet, arms behind his head, leaning comfortably on the couch. "come on brother, lets go hunting. Im starving and i am bored; this towns become quite boring."

"no. I'm not playing your little games. only because your boredom has taken over doesn't mean you are allowed to play games with others, Damon."

"what the hell are you taking about." this was more of a statement than a question.

"in the woods. you know exactly what I'm talking about."

"I don't know what kind of furry animal you've been on, but I've been here all day being the good little boy i am." Damon looked serious, with the hint of a never-ending sarcasm prowled over his face.

Stefan contemplated this. What if Damon was right. what if it wasn't him. it sure seemed like he had no idea what Stefan was talking about.

Stefan sat on the couch parallel to the one Damon was sitting on and began to tell Damon what happened in the woods. He told him about hearing her voice; how he knew it was hers. He told her that if this was Elena and not someone trying to mess with them, then she needed help, because that is exactly what she had said. The only thing Stefan left out was the last words he had heard. "I love you." he didn't want to say anything to damon because he didn't want damon to worry. Stefan wasn't even sure if the last words sounded like Elena's because they sounded so odd. They sounded different and old. In Addition he didn't want to tell Damon because it was for himself. He wanted to keep those words with him.

"are you sure it was Elena?" Damon asked once Stefan was done.

"Im positive, Damon. I can still hear her voice and i know her voice so well." Stefan immediately regretted saying that. It sounded awe-filled, but Damon didn't notice, he was to busy pacing holes into the carpet, wondering.

"ok. ok." he spoke. "if this is some screwed up prank, then someone is dead... but if this is real, we need to figure it out. She may be in there somewhere." Damon was condensed in hope. false hope maybe and he knew it.

"i'll go get bonnie. Do you still have the tape Kai made?" Damon was speaking fast, almost excitedly.

"yah, it should be around, why?" Stefan crossed him arms.

"just go find it. Meet me here in 2 hours." He swiftly made his way out. Stefan stood in the centre of the living room. His mind had started to ponder all the possibilities as he watched Damon blur through the door, past the driveway and into the woods.

"


	3. Chapter 3

Bonnie looked down at her phone that lay on her bed; 7 missed calls from damon and about 10 text messages. but she didn't want to answer her phone, she was busy.

her hand hovered over the baffling pile of feathers that lay on her lap. her legs were crossed on her bed as she tried to levitate the feathers. It was a simple spell, she thought, but why couldn't she do it.

She stopped. she stared at the white feathers she had gathered from her pillow and then shook her head, hair strands flowing over her forehead. then, with a sudden gesture, she dropped her head and swiped the feathers off the bed. where they floated off harmlessly and slowly landed on the soft floor.

it was so completely frustrating.

It'd been weeks. she was told that she would have had her magic back soon enough, that it would come but it would come slowly. thats what she was told. and Bonnie had begun to realize that what she was told and what actually happened were two completely different outlooks. they always were, and it was stupefying that she ever thought otherwise when everything thats ever happened to her would say the opposite.

She got up off of her bed and picked up all of the feather on the floor. they were soft to the touch. she tossed the feathers into the air and watched them slowly fall to the ground. flowing like white robed phantoms they slid through the air, rocking back and forth like a ride she'd used to ride at the Mystic fair and as she watched them wither to the floor, not able to prolong the last touch, she started feeling useless.

Once they touched the ground she used her simple human bionics, this time stuffing the feathers back into the pillow case.

she jumped back onto her bed and grabbed her phone and read the last text message which was from Damon.

 _You know you are useless if you don't pick your phone up. BTW, On my way to your place._

She rolled her eyes at his attempt of be insulting. She knew he had a heart in him.

She began to reply when the front door to her house creaked. putting down her phone she got up assuming it was Damon- she wasn't expecting anyone else. "Damon?" Bonnie asked.

The creak transferred from her front door, which she had not heard close, to the stairs. they creaked louder, drilling slow churning shivers into the air. It was completely quite in the rest of the house which uttered a vibe of fear through bonnie. the creaking was the only sound that hovered, not even the sound of Damon's sarcasm penetrated the sound barrier, though, thats what bonnie was waiting- hoping for. But it never came.

"Damon?" she nearly whispered, waiting for something to jumpy out at her. She was in front of her door now, head against the wooden frame. She heard one final creak before it all went silent.

Bonnie opened the door slowly and looked out into the sunlit hallway. it was quiet, so quiet you could hear the sun filtering through the window panes and into the hallway. it was a morning sun, warm and comforting and thats how she woke up to it, feeling comforted, but now it only seemed harmful. it brought the death of fear souring down the hallway and back, like the fear of watching a horror show, knowing something scary was gonna happen. and to bonnie, it felt as though there was something or someone in the hallway and it floated in the air around her, touching her, breezing past her. she could sense it, almost like she was able to sense things when her magic was intact. she could picture the invisible figure standing amid the sunlight and patterned carpet and narrow walls. but when she pictured it, nothing but a darkness filled its appearance and all its features were hollow and shadowed. the sun beams that came through the windows couldn't even penetrate this apparition in bonnies head, they just passed through it, illuminating part of the wall and bottom floor board as it would if there was no-one there.

bonnie shook her head. there wasn't anything here. she shouldn't be scared. it was all some stupid feeling of human fear and she should get over it.

"Damon," she shouted, as though saying his name would make her feel safer. and it did for a few seconds, until the silent barrier resurfaced.

she began to move down the hallway. it began to feel like she was in a crowded room of cold bodies and each touch made her insides shiver. the shivers led to tightened muscles and soon enough she couldn't breathe. it felt like she was being suffocated. not strangled, but like someone had robbed the world of air and left only the thick dense atmosphere.

Bonnie clasped her throat with one hand and her chest with the other. she could feel the air leaving her body and it hurt, it really hurt. she wondered what was causing this as she lost the strength to her legs, dropping onto her knees and gasping for air. she was clawing for air now. she was dying for air. her vision began to go fuzzy and dark, but before it all went she could finally see what she knew was there. there were a dozen dark figures in the tight hallway and they were walking past her. they didn't even know she was there.

"Help," she gasped, "please help me."

but no one heard her. she was alone but populated all at once and completely vulnerable. there was no one to help her, no one to acknowledge her and the fact that she was dying.

Her peripheral vision was completely dark now. she could only see straight ahead and before that went she saw one of the dark figures standing in her line of sight. there was something different between him and the rest of the moving shadows; he was standing, and he appeared to be looking straight at her.

she reached her arm out for help, but it didn't move. it stood still in its solitary. it looked as if it was enjoying her death. and after a moment, a hollow curve grew on its face; it was large and wide; it was smiling.

"Bon-Bon." Damon yelled fiercely as he entered her front door. There was no time to waste, not to him. its been to long since the last time he's heard Elena's voice and it had been driving him mad. it had driven him so mad that he had turned to the normalities that came to the rest of the world, it had driven him to the boredom of the regular life others lived, and though he didn't mind the perpetual cycle of a normal life for a small time, he could not wait to be rid of it and see Elena again.

Damon made his way through the house shouting her name in every room as though she were waiting in the deepest corners of them, hiding in her secrecy. But she was nowhere downstairs, so he made his way upstairs, his feet heavy against the stairs floor boards, and headed to her room.

In the upstairs hallway there were picture hanging on both sides. there was a picture on the right side, which was of Elena, Bonnie, and Caroline; they were all dressed in their cheerleading outfits, side by side, smiles draped over their pretty shaped faces. on the other side of the wall was a picture of a large group of people who resembled Bonnie. the resemblances varied between the large group and if you took tiny features from every member of the family, you could reconstruct Bonnie's image clearly. The rest of wall space was decorated with a few paintings and a tall thin plant that stood at the very end of the hallway. the hallway felt lonely with the bright, cool fall light.

Damon was still rushing with wonder about elena, who he believed was locked away in a coffin, far to far and out of his inhuman reach. He wondered what his first words to her would be. maybe he wouldn't have any, maybe he would be speechless, maybe she would be speechless. maybe the universe would erupt in-between them. his mind went this way for what seemed to be forever.

"Bon-Bon," he started, "i know you're here." Damon sensed her presence as soon as he entered the house. he walked towards her door.

He was in front of her door, which was slightly open. He knocked twice, very lightly, and opened the door before an answer was given or was able to be given. He was not about wasting time, especially when this needed to be figured out.

her room, empty and cold, was flowing in the wind as if in flight. the long white drapes were flowing into the room from the air that came from the open window, making the room seem like it was in the sky, flying above the world. The drapes were flying over her bed and under the ceiling, flying like the conspicuous ghosts that haunted his dreams at the darkest hours in his life. In the bed, under the dark green sheets, was the shape of a sleeping figure. it was still and looked like a set of hills from Damon's distance.

"Get up, Bonnie." Damon urged. he had no serenity at the moment, he was all in urgency.

He moved towards the bed and took hold of the lump underneath the blanket and began to shake. She still didn't wake. she didn't even move a muscle; almost like there wasn't a dark skinned girl with her crooked lips lying underneath. But Damon knew she was under there, he could sense her human life force- maybe a life force even stronger.

"Get up." he said, frustrated.

He pulled the green bedsheets off of her body. there was a flash of haze and darkness that entranced with the wind of the blanket. it was dark and fast and it felt oddly like a dream; a nightmare. It entered in damon. it drew him back, or it felt like it drew him back. back where, he didn't know. all he knew was that something was dragging him back and he could feel his mind slowly slipping away and focusing on the rough feeling of the wind. something light but heavy, all at once, grabbed ahold of his shoulder, holding its grip, but not pulling. it felt like he was being dragged in a meadow of darkness, and it all happened to fast.

It lasted for a second. once it was over and he no longer felt as though he was in that darkened haze, he was once again starring back at Bonnie's bed. Her sheet was nicely folded on top of her clean mattress, which smelled of fresh laundry. There was no longer that mountain shaped lump in the bed. there was no longer that dark skinned girl with the crooked lips lying silently, undisturbed. there was only the bed and the rough feeling of the wind that made Damon wonder: what the hell just happened? bonnie was no longer under her sheets and it seemed that damon had not even touched the sheets themselves.

Damon wondered where bonnie had went. He was sure she was here, and her presence was felt by him, strongly, just as though she were in front of him that very moment. but now she was gone, when he needed her the most. A tiny sliver of worry broke out in his mind.

suddenly, the house felt different, in that splice of time, it had changed. the dissipated presence of bonnie, well known now, brought a new presence in. there was now a presence within the house that seemed unknown to Damon. he could not quite sense what it was or what source of power it was giving out. the only thing he was sensing was people- lots of people -almost like he was at a founders party; it was crowded.

Creaks began to form in the hallway, on the steps leading upstairs. They were slow, but they were loud, echoing in the empty house. Damon made his way to the hallway. he looked at the stairs but there was nothing there, yet the stairs kept on creaking. they were getting louder as the unidentified, and invisible, force, made its way closer to damon. then it stopped.

suddenly Damon was faced with a dark shadow. it was hollow and it had no features to it. the shadow look as though it was swallowing itself up into its own hollowness. the figure made Damon dark clothing look as the vigour of white. it was so dark, damon had never seen something so dark before. and at the same time he could not explain its darkness, because there had never been something so black and hollow, so unexplainably engulfing, ever.

Damon eyes grew large, stunned at the suddenness of its presence and at the fact that he could feel the figure. he could still feel the crowdedness, but the figure, he couldn't feel. all he could do was stare as it faced him; it didn't move, it stood still in itself. Damon was about to speak when the feeling of haziness returned and the feeling of being tugged backwards came again. this time, shadows passed him in that split second of undistinguishable happening. the shadows whirled around him, whisping light out into darkness. it stopped abruptly. then, like before, he was looking out into the day that he had woke to; nothing was in front of him, nothing was behind him. this time he sensed nothing, but he could now recall the feeling he felt, the feeling of being tugged. though in fast, short spurts, it felt like he was being dragged back in time.


	4. Chapter 4

Stefan fingered his way through the old oak-wood dresser he had had in his room for decades. it was dusty, probably from the lack of usage and amount of crap he had kept in there. but to stefan, it wasn't crap. it was his life that was kept inside the dresser. or example, all of his favourite books and letters he's written and all of the journals he'd written through were kept inside here. and it was these same sentimental safe keeps he was rummaging through.

He pushed aside all the leather-bound books until he could feel the cold metal frame, dust encasing it. then, he pulled the camera out and set it on top of the dresser. he pushed his hand back into the dresser and reorganized everything to the way it had been. stefan hated things to be off balance and not to his liking.

after a moment, when everything was in place, he went back to the camera. He looked to the tiny- barely readable- note that clung to the side by tape. It was just like he had first seen it, which made him feel a sense of curiosity. because it was curiosity that had flung over his mind the first time he had seen the note. for a moment, it even sailed him back in time to that exact same time, when everyone (damon, bonnie, matt, caroline, alaric, and stefan) stood around the camera wondering what the hell it was that needed to be watched.

"watch me" was what it read, with a smiley face drawn on at the end, enticing rage over all who had watched it. soon, curiosity transferred into slow churning rage. it weld up into stefan as rage always did; slow but intensely. it climbed up the back of his spine, burning with intensity as strong as hunger had once burned in him.

With the burning anger, he wanted to crush the object in his hands. it wouldn't hurt him, he thought, but we needed it. that is what would hurt us.

instead of crushing the object into tiny dust like pieces, he calmed his rage down to anger that made him want to get things done. he pressed the button on the camera to turn it on, but nothing happened. usually the small rim around the on button turned green, but now it did nothing. instinctively, he thought it was broken. then, he realized why it wasn't turning on.

i am such a fool, he thought, running his hand through his smooth, brown hair. it was dead- it had been in a world of dust for three years, of course it was going to be dead.

He found the charger, plugged it into the wall, then to the camera and placed it down on one of his night stands. Stefan watched it for a few seconds. he watched the green light on the camera light up to indicate that it was charging. as he sat on his bed, watching the green light, he could already, in his mind, see everything that the camera contained. One video. a smug, sneering face. and his own hope, gone.

his reverie of the video secluded with the slam of a door. Stefan got up off his bed and made his way down the large stairs of the boarding house. he gripped onto the railing as he went down, relishing in the oak that was used to create such beautiful masterpieces. he really did miss this place.

As he turned into the large living room, he could see the figure of a pretty blonde, standing amid the carpet. "Stefan, what the hell is going on?" Caroline asked. "damon sent me this vague message telling me to head here as quickly as possible."

"its Elena. we think she might be back- talking to us at the very least." stefan replied. he made his way to cabinet that contained all the alcohol; grabbed two cups, a bottle of bourbon, and began pouring. his face was drowned in wonder, but he was calm, and he was very tired, or he looked very tired, Caroline noticed.

"what? but how? kai put her in that sleeping curse so theres no way..." she stopped herself, drifting off in confusion as she thought about elena being back

Stefan moved closer to her, offering her a glass 3 quarters full. she grabbed it without hesitation and took one long sip, the confusion still in her eyes.

"trust me, i know. I'm not sure how, or why, but it was her. in the woods, she spoke to me, and she needed our help, caroline." he placed a firm hand on her shoulder.

Caroline gave stefan a weary glance at this contact; it shouted, "UNCOMFORTABLE." stefan could easily see this, removing his hand off of her shoulder and giving her a reassuring smile. Caroline returned the smile and said, "thanks," very awkwardly.

She spun around, her back now facing him, and looked around the room, gathering herself up. "so where's Damon?"

Stefan gave out a little cough. the air seemed quite colder now as it made its way up his veiny arms, drilling him with sharp shivers. "he went to get bonnie."

"ok...what are we suppose to do now."

"well, I'm going to re-watch the video kai left on the camera. maybe we can catch something. maybe theres more to the video... or maybe there isn't, but it does hurt to try." he sounded unsure of himself.

"well, what if it doesn't work?"

"thats what bonnie is for," he said." hopefully shell be able to figure this out."

"ok, lets go then." she had turned back around now, looking at Stefan with her hasty, wide eyes.

"Go?" stefan was still reeling with discomfort, or awkwardness.

"to watch the video." she said, in her normal i-dont-have-all-day voice. she sounded just like the regular, old caroline, all awkwardness and discomfort gone. and it was gone in stefan, too. the whole house was free of it, and stefan was relieved.

Caroline headed to the stairs first. and as she made her way past stefan, towards the stairs, briskly bristling her aura by stefan, he could smell the soft almond-coconut on her hair. It was just as it had been a few months ago when they were still together. it gave him a tiny nostalgic feeling that he slightly missed made his brain inherit pictures- small snapshots- of them, together. they had been so happy at one point, when they were engaged and living together, but now it was all tension.

Stefan followed her up golden figure up the stairs remembering why they had ended their engagment. then, as he thought about the why's, the pictures started to slowly fade out of his head.

"it should be well charged by now." stefan said, as she detached the camera from the charger, holding it as if it were going to explode. she looked just as stefan had when he first dug it out of the drawer: stunned, like she was seeing and feeling everything as if it were happening for the very first time.

with a sudden end to the past, she shook her head slightly and turned the camera on. she was very quiet. there was not a single word or sound coming from either her or stefan. but there was a spark on her cheek.

she was crying now. she lifted her hand to her face and began to weep, the silence breaking. the sobs came with short, quiet gasps in-between.

Stefan did not want to interfere, and even if he did, it wouldn't help. he was not the right person for this and he even knew it. there would of been a time in the not to distant past where he would of held her in his arms without hesitation, but it was gone. she was alone, just as alone as he was.

Soon she let her tears run without her weeping. then, she forced her focus back onto the camera and began clicking away on the display. stefan moved closer to her and stood over her shoulder. she stopped clicking and he could see where she had frozen on. it was the face that enraged stefan only moments ago, and now the rage started to come again. He took a long breath, the coconut-almond scent raveshing his anger into tiny frustrations. he was glad for caroline now, her and her soothing smell.

"play it," stefan told caroline. She was in a state of ice. she seemed as if her mind had wandered into rage, just as his. but with his voice interrupting her personal rage, she snapped back into reality and pressed play.

it lasted 2 minutes; Shock, confusion, and thoughts that associated the mind to the inability to understand what had just happened spread over them. with what they expected- a two minute video of Kai explaining what he had done to elena- they were dazzled into a video they had not seen before.

It was surely Kai on the camera, and the date the video was made had shown to them that it was the exact same date as it had been when they had first watched. but there was something terribly wrong with the content of the video. it was such a divergent video. it was not the same video they had seen 3 years back, but a video that held what they believed, on their heels.

They were both speechless. what had they just watched, stefan questioned, running his hand through his tousled wavy hair..

Caroline just stood there, tears staining her cheek. she rubbed the sleeve of her sweater across her cheeks and eyes. she was feeling little at the moment, like everything was closing in on her. then, a sudden shudder. "what- what just happened?" she asked to no one in particular, more to herself than anyone.

"i have no clue, but we should wait till bonnie and damon get here. they have to see this." stefan said, snapping himself back into this odd, swirling reality.

Stefan looked down to his watch; it had been about 2 hours since damon had left. that didn't seem right to, stefan thought, damon wouldn't drag something this important on. he would rush it, especially since it had to do with elena. he wouldn't bother wasting a single minute.

Stefan began to worry. not only because damon wasn't back, but because something inside of him was screaming, tearing away at him. it was saying that nothing felt right about all of this. this video; Damon being gone; him hearing elena in the woods not only 2 and a half hours ago. it all seemed so wrong and he could finally feel that now. it had been there in the woods, but he couldn't feel it. now, he could sense it trying to tear him apart, trying to tell him that something bad is going to happen. or that something bad has already happened or is happening.

"something isn't right," stefan said, starring at the camera as if it were going to disappear into nothingness.

caroline shifted her gaze to stefan. "you can sense it too?" she asked.

"like something bad is going to happen, or that it already has started?"

"yah, something like that."

Stefan long, lean muscles tensed up under his blue shirt. the bulge in his muscles crawled into the hollow spots of the shirt, and his back tensed up in a stone-like way, almost as if, now that he knew this feeling wasn't only his, he was letting the cool air show through his body. it wasn't actually cold though, it only felt like it, the sun of early fall shining through the open windows, which created warm heat through the boardinghouse.

Caroline kept her gaze on stefan, noticing the shifts and tenses in his body. she even began to feel just the same. maybe it was because the tension in him made her tense up, and the fact that she could see through the normal tension that always kept close to him, to the new intensified tension, worried her a little more.

"maybe we should call Damon. its been a while hasn't it?" she said, finally breaking the silence and the icy-stone-like barrier stefan had inherited.

"yah," he said with the hollowness of someone who wasn't actually there.

Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out his phone. instinctively, he noticed the time; it had been 2 and a half hours since Damon had left. Stefan tapped on damon's number and held the phone close to his ear as the phone rang. no answer. he looked wearily at caroline, then tried again. but still nothing, only the sound of the automated voice machine suggesting he leave a message.

Suddenly, phone still in hand, Stefan felt a electric shock bristle through his arm. he dropped the phone as the electric current shot on for a few seconds. and then came the voice of someone very familiar. someone very soft and welcoming.

"help. you have to stop them." Elena's voice rang through the speakers of the phone, its squared shape still lying on the floor.


End file.
